Landscaping Magic Fixes a Dangerous Sloped Yard

Landscape architect Michael Glassman usually has to walk a property before he begins to analyze a site’s challenges. But when he visited Larry and Beth Goldberg’s home in Sacramento, California, he wasn’t even out of the car before the problems became apparent. “I couldn’t find a place to park,” he says. “The house is on an incline, and the street goes up a hill, which people race down. You take your life in your hands getting out of your car if you park on that street.”

Here's how Glassman opened up the landscape and made it work for the family.

A large hapberry tree had heaved up the driveway. Weeds had taken over the yard. The house itself was a “weird yellow color, and I had no idea where the front door was,” Glassman says. “There was a hokey stucco wall, concrete steps over here, stepping stones over there, weeds everywhere and erosion problems.”


AFTER: Glassman first addressed the parking situation. He created an ingenious parking bay that allows guests to pull right up to the front of the house, safely off the street. And because guests didn’t know where to enter the house before, often wandering to a driveway-side entrance instead of the front door, Glassman established a clear path to the entryway.



Steps now lead directly from the parking bay to the front door, and there's a patio with a water feature. To deal with the erosion problems, Glassman installed acid-stained-steel retainer walls that terrace the landscape. He then took the Goldbergs on a trip to the nursery to hand pick plants, trees and grasses for the property.


The tree on the right is a crape myrtle, the only one on the property. To the left of that is a purple smoke tree. Reddish barberry plants work their way up the steps.

The grayish tree on the far left is a fruitless olive, one of three. The spiky dark bronze plant below it is a flax. The green pots hold kangaroo paw, sedum, succulents and Red-Hot Poker.


The big tree nearest the parking bay is the crape myrtle, shown here. The one to the right is another fruitless olive. A little ollie and an ice-blue shore juniper adorn the steel corner in the foreground. Ornamental grasses fill out the rest. The plants repeat in odd numbers throughout the raised beds.

More: Find plants for your dream landscape

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